His to Take (Wicked Lovers #9)(27)
Author: Shayla Black

A bolt of envy pierced Bailey. Other than her one short-lived romance as a senior in high school that had resulted in a prom date and the loss of her virginity, she’d never experienced much in the way of romance. Being cooped up in a dance studio with a bunch of other aspiring ballerinas and a few guys who’d been mostly fighting the urge to come out of the closet hadn’t been great for her love life.

Thorpe urged Callie forward. “This is Bailey Benson and Joaquin Muñoz. They arrived early this morning from Houston. Logan sent them.”

“I’m Callie Howe.” The heiress held out her hand politely, and they both shook it.

“Soon to be Mackenzie.” Sean corrected with a grin, then shook their hands, too.

The gorgeous brunette cocked her head to one side, giving Thorpe a puzzled glance. “New members?”

Of what? Bailey wanted to ask.

Before she could, Joaquin shook his head. “Logan’s brother is married to my little sister. I’m working on a case. The guys suggested that I talk to Mackenzie. And especially to you, Callie.”

“Why don’t we all sit?” Thorpe suggested. “It’s not going to be a quick conversation.”

“Thanks. I appreciate this.” Joaquin pulled two chairs toward a window seat. He took the one closest to the door.

Thorpe settled on one end of the bench under the shuttered glass, Sean on the other. With a happy smile, Callie settled herself in the middle. Sean wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she rested her head against him. Thorpe dropped his hand on her thigh possessively, making her smile widen just a bit more.

The trio’s openness about their relationship surprised Bailey, but they looked utterly at peace. Meant to be. They’d probably known it at first sight and just fallen madly in love. Callie had obviously been much smarter in her romantic life, and Bailey chastised herself again for letting Joaquin nearly kiss her. He wanted to protect her—if he was telling the truth. Big if. But he hadn’t sought her out looking for eternal love. She shouldn’t be stupid enough to allow herself to feel any emotion for a man capable of abducting a woman and possessing frightening information about a string of mutilated bodies.

“So if Logan sent you to talk to me, this must have something to do with whoever killed my family,” Callie murmured, her smile dimming. “Are those two dirtbags from LOSS back from Mexico and on my tail again?”

“LOSS?” Joaquin leaned forward in the chair beside her.

Nice to know she wasn’t the only one already confused.

Sean sighed. “The League of Secessionist Soldiers. We’ve managed to keep this paramilitary separatist group’s involvement in this case out of the news, so they probably sound unfamiliar.”

“They must be the well-funded fuck-all-crazies Logan mentioned.” Joaquin sighed.

“They are,” Thorpe confirmed. “Convinced the country needs to be dissolved so that we can all form our own sects based on blood, race, and religion—the purer the better.”

“Bigots, in other words,” Joaquin spat.

“The gun-toting kind.” Thorpe’s lips lifted in a smile, but it wasn’t a pleasant expression.

“Precisely. As you’re probably aware, Callie’s father paid a Russian scientist for his research.”

“Viktor Aslanov. I know,” Joaquin cut in, looking tense, anxious.

Bailey tensed. Did she really want to know all this?

“When Daniel Howe discovered that his money had funded research he never intended, he demanded Aslanov turn it all over to him. But the Russian—”

“Had already sold it to LOSS. But why would a separatist group want Aslanov’s research?”

“Well,” Sean drawled. “To defeat a military with the size and sophistication of the U.S. forces, they need a leg up. They’re never going to outspend or out-train Uncle Sam. So why not genetically alter your own soldiers to make them stronger, faster, and smarter?”

“That’s insane.” Bailey stared at them all. “That won’t work . . . will it?”

Thorpe shrugged. “Since we’ve never seen the actual research, we don’t know what exactly Aslanov sold them. We’ve read guesstimates and heard rumors. We can speculate, but . . .”

“We tend to think that they found whatever work Aslanov had already given them valuable because they’d purchased another phase of research from him.” Mackenzie paused. “When Aslanov didn’t deliver, they wiped him and most of his family out, then came after Callie’s father after they pieced it all together a few years later. But Howe had burned everything the scientist gave him. So the radical idiots shot him and Callie’s younger sister.”